In both urban and rural areas, it is common practice for school children and young students to ride to school using buses operated by the city or county school system or by a private company. Buses have predetermined routes and stop at selected places along those routes.
In urban areas, stops are frequent and buses usually pick up children in areas with good visibility and multiple traffic signs. However, in the suburbs or in rural areas, it is not uncommon to see buses travel many miles along their particular routes and stop in sometimes unsafe conditions, such as directly on the highway, along sharp curves, downhill, in obstructed intersections, or other "blind" areas where drivers may not be able to see a stopped school bus far enough to safely slow down and stop.
The present invention remedies this situation and creates a safer environment for school children and bus drivers as well. It is an object of the present invention to provide a system which will improve the safety of motorists, bus drivers, and children riding on the bus. It is another object of this invention to provide a system that is easy to manufacture and would use electronic equipment readily available. It is further an object of this invention to provide such system needed to prevent road accidents.
While the application of the present invention to school buses is discussed above, it should be understood that the invention could be utilized for numerous other applications. For example, the warning sign system could be installed in an area where trucks are frequently backing into loading docks that are adjacent to the road. The invention may also be utilized by quarier or industrial parks when slow accelerating trucks are frequently pulling out into traffic along a busy road or highway.